Train to give tours at South Slough

CHARLESTON — Volunteer to help students get acquainted with the South Slough Estuary for the spring field trip season March 20 through June 15.

Most school groups are 3rd-5th graders but also include a couple middle school groups. Typical schedule is 8:45 a.m. until noon or 1 p.m.; help one-two days a week, Tuesday through Friday. Roughly 80 percent of the spring bookings are for the tide flats program at the Charleston Marina, near the Portside Restaurant area. And roughly 20 percent are watershed hikes at the Interpretive Center.

Volunteer training this spring will focus on the tide flats program with the option to pick from the following areas: wrack line inhabitants – learn about all the amazing assortment of creatures that call the intertidal zone home, special emphasis is placed on adaptations and challenges; eel grass and dock study – learn about the colorful fouling community organisms that live on the docks in the Charleston Marina, as well as eel grass and the huge variety of organisms it supports; and mudflats study – take a closer look at the organisms that call the mud flats home and their special adaptations to live and avoid predators in this mucky home.